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10,000 Walrus Come Ashore in Northwest Alaska
An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.
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Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.
The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.
....
Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.
The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/10000-walrus-ashore-northwest-alaska-20436625
4 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
And who'd blame 'em?! Am I right or am I right? 
It's not where their food is, and predators will nom their babies, but changes in their ice surely can't have anything to do with it.
But oops I'm sorry for "their", they aren't in possession of that ice where they live, they're just dumb animals! Well at least they're smart enough to know how great a nice beach is 
Maybe all the animals up there will move to land when they figure out no matter where they go a giant ship could be breaking through. Some of them need to hurry and grow legs though! and mighty mighty brains like us humans possess.
